Answered by Shaykh Sohail Hanif, SunniPath Academy Teacher
What is the Hanafi position for a child touching a Qur’an? What if you teach them to be careful with it? If the answer is no, how should we deal with the fact that here in the West, it is important to encourage the child’s imitation of good things?
In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate and Merciful.
All four Sunni schools agree that it is forbidden for adults to touch the Qur’an without being in a state of ritual purity.
As for children, Imam al-Haskafi mentions in al-Durr al-Mukhtar,
“It is not disliked for a child to touch a Qur’an and there is no harm in giving it to him or seeking it from him, for the sake of necessity, because memorization in youth is like engraving in stone.”
Ibn Abidin comments on Imam al-Haskafi’s saying for the sake of necessity’, mentioning that in commanding the child to perform an ablution every time would be difficult for the child [f: and the teachers] and if one delays teaching the child until he matures one would miss out on utilizing the gift of memorization that young children possess. This reason indicates, as mentioned by Tahtawi, that if one is not teaching the child then it would not be permitted to give the Qur’an to him or seek him to bring it to one. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar `ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar, 1.117, Bulaq ed.]
As children grow one should encourage them to perform ablution before touching the Qur’an. My personal experience with my nephew and niece is that the fact that they could not touch the Qur’an without being in a state of ritual purity led them to respect it and see it as quite unlike other books, a respect that merely telling them that the Qur’an is special would not cause, and they would be quite excited when they had performed the wudu saying Oh we can touch the Qur’an now.’
Of course with young children one must make sure that they do not do anything disrespectful with the Qur’an whilst reading or walking with it.
And Allah knows best.